Tag Archives: New York

Father and Daughter Travel

Destinations: New York City, Montreal and Berlin (with a bit of Paris)


Book:  All Those Things We Never Said by Marc Levy (Published in Canada in 2010, and the U.S. 2012.) Translation by Chris Murray

Here is Publisher’s Weekly review of Marc Levy’s first novel, If Only It Were True,  (YA (Young Adult). The movie, called Just Like Heaven, starred Reese Witherspoon. Here’s part of the book review of Levy’s first book:

This is the book, by a French architect based in San Francisco, that made a huge Hollywood deal, and then a seven-figure sale to Pocket Books. It’s an interesting study in the difference between a movie concept and a novel. One can imagine it as an offbeat romantic comedy on the screen, with charismatic actors and some nifty special effects, but as a book it’s slight and one-dimensional–and it doesn’t help that Levy has no ear whatsoever for American speech patterns.

Continue reading Father and Daughter Travel

Five Spooky Movie Locations

Wednesday Matinee

By Jane Boursaw

Destination: Creepy Locations Around the United States

The Amityville Horror
Famed home of The Amityville Horror

The movie industry loves to celebrate Halloween, so I’m currently awash in spooky films, DVDs and blu-ray releases.

Last year over at Reel Life With Jane, I wrote about some of the scariest movies I’d seen and polled a few friends for their choices. Movies topping the list include Carrie, Wait Until Dark, The Silence of the Lambs , The Descent, The Shining, and Poltergeist. Continue reading Five Spooky Movie Locations

How Buddha Came to Brooklyn

Japan mountain scene
Japan mountain scene

Destinations: Japan and Brooklyn, New York

 Book:  Buddhaland Brooklyn by Richard C. Morais (NEW July, 212)

This new novel, like meditation, encourages calm thoughts and some new insights into oneself and one’s culture. But it brings  some laughs, too.

I gravitate to books that bring a culture to life, and since I’ve never been to Japan, I appreciated the subtle ways that Richard Morais introduces the Japanese mindset in Buddhaland Brooklyn: A Novel. What we are used to, we assume, is “right” so we have no trouble reading about the culture of Japan–as Americans, comparing it to our own American culture. Continue reading How Buddha Came to Brooklyn